YouTuber MrBeast is suing the company behind his virtual burger restaurant MrBeast Burger for $10 million. In response, Virtual Dining Concepts (VDC) is suing him right back — and for ten times that amount.
As first reported by Variety, VDC is claiming over $100 million in damages from MrBeast, aka Jimmy Donaldson, in a lawsuit filed to a New York court on Monday. According to the allegations, MrBeast failed to uphold his contractual obligation to publicise and promote MrBeast Burger, and in fact damaged the brand by making “untruthful,” “misleading,” or “disparaging comments.”
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In particular, VDC’s suit references posts on MrBeast’s Twitter/X account, in which he implied that MrBeast Burger’s meals are of poor quality. That account has nearly 23 million followers.
“I started MrBeast Burger to help restaurants make more [money] during the pandemic and it worked!” MrBeast wrote in a since-deleted post in June. “Sadly when working with 2,000 restaurants I don’t own it’s impossible to guarantee the order quality. I’m moving on from MrBeast Burger so I can focus on [MrBeast’s food brand] Feastables and making snacks!”
In virtual restaurant models such as MrBeast Burger, food is primarily sold for online ordering, with orders fulfilled by partner kitchens. MrBeast partnered with VDC to launch the brand in late 2020, and the restaurant quickly expanded internationally several months later.
“I would [close MrBeast Burger] if I could but the company I partnered with won’t let me stop even though it’s terrible for my brand,” MrBeast continued. “Young beast signed a bad deal.”
In addition to damaging the MrBeast Burger brand, VDC further alleges that MrBeast’s comments negatively impacted the company’s reputation and relationships with its vendors, harming its entire business and causing it significant financial losses.
“Donaldson’s baseless and unlawful disparagement had the intended effect: MrBeast Burger’s reputation was materially damaged if not destroyed, customers abandoned the Brand, Plaintiffs’ hard-won relationships with vendors, partners, and suppliers were shattered, causing damages to Plaintiffs that, according to the evidence and Donaldson’s own statements regarding the value of MrBeast Burger, are in the nine-figure range,” VDC claims.
“This case is about a social media celebrity who believes his fame means that his word does not matter, that the facts do not matter, and that he can renege and breach his contractual obligations without consequence. He is mistaken.”
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VDC’s lawsuit follows MrBeast’s own case filed against the company in New York last month. In it, MrBeast claims that VDC has provided “low-quality” and in some cases “inedible” burgers, which “irreparably tarnished MrBeast’s reputation.”
“[B]ecause Virtual Dining Concepts was more focused on rapidly expanding the business as a way to pitch the virtual restaurant model to other celebrities for its own benefit, it was not focused on controlling the quality of the MrBeast Burger customer experience and products,” the lawsuit alleges.
“Customers have referred to the burgers as being ‘disgusting,’ ‘revolting,’ and ‘inedible.’ They have claimed that ‘it is sad that MrBeast would put his name on this,’ ‘MrBeast is being cancelled over burgers;’ ‘never had something so nasty;’ ‘inaccurate Marketing;’ ‘Orlando’s worst burger;’ ‘big name, poor food;’ ‘very upsetting for the high price;’ and ‘likely the worst burger I have ever had.'”
A quick look on Twitter/X, Reddit, and MrBeast Burger’s Yelp pages reveals numerous unhappy customers sharing photos of disappointing, unappetising, and sometimes even raw food. The MrBeast Burger Twitter/X account is currently set to private.
MrBeast has requested a judgement allowing him to terminate his endorsement agreement with VDC, an injunction stopping the company from using his branding, and payment of damages and costs associated with the case. The lawsuit states that MrBeast believes the damage he suffered to be “in excess of Ten Million Dollars.”
MrBeast Burger is still operating for now, in case you wanted to take that gamble. You should probably get in quick, though. If the restaurant’s namesake has his way, it may not be around for much longer.
